Christchurch: The Gateway to the South Island

Like nearly all travelers intending to explore New Zealand's South Island, my adventures began at the Christchurch Airport. I got off the plane exhausted after 30 hours in transit, including a 5-hour layover in Auckland and a very entertaining flight next to an ingénue of an 8-year-old who spent the entire 1 1/2 hours to Christchurch solving the world's problems. For instance, no airplanes would ever catch on fire if their engines were filled with water. Who knew?

Christchurch definitely wasn't something I circled on my itinerary as being a highlight. It mainly served as a jumping-off point, a city where I could get myself ready and supplied for the wild yonder that lay ahead. For this reason, I only booked one night in Christchurch; I needed somewhere quick to crash and sleep off the worst of the jetlag.

That said, Christchurch still has a lot to offer in its own right. Even though I'd been there before, I was excited about returning to see both the best Botanic Gardens I've ever seen and the Gothic cathedral in the center of--you guessed it--Cathedral Square. There are lots of other activities for visitors that I didn't try, including taking a tram ride around the city centre, riding the gondola to get a bird's eye view of the South Island's largest city, and enjoying a relaxing afternoon in a gondola on the Avon River.

Christchurch has excellent markets in both Cathedral Square and the Arts Centre on the weekends, which is a great place to get a taste for Kiwi life; many stall owners are very willing to tell you all about their work and how it relates to Maori legend or just New Zealand in general. They're a great place to get handmade NZ jewelry or a bite of the wonderful Kiwi ice cream called hokey pokey.

Quick Tips:

The first thing that surprised me about Christchurch was the lack of easy-to-access supermarkets in the CBD. When I asked about groceries at my hostel, they told me that I would have to catch a bus to get to any reasonably-sized stores; otherwise, I was stuck with what I could find in the small and massively overpriced convenience stores on Gloucester Street. Since I had less than 24 hours in Christchurch, I decided to spend my time seeing what I could rather than stocking up on provisions; I just hoped that my next destination would have a supermarket within walking distance! However, if you do have more time (and perhaps your own form of transport) shopping in Christchurch is a very good idea. All of the major supermarkets are there, including Pak 'n' Save, where you can buy non-perishables in bulk for the more remote parts of your journey.

Before planning your trip, I would definitely check out the Christchurch Events Calendar. I got lucky enough to stumble upon the World Buskers Festival, which I have reviewed in another entry, while I was in the city and there are loads of other events & festivals throughout the year that you might enjoy as well. Only days after I left the city, Bon Jovi had a sold-out concert and every hostel in town was booked up and charging excessive rates for those that did get beds. This calendar will help you avoid those times or book well in advance so you don't end up disappointed or paying exorbitant amounts for a place to sleep!

Finally, if you can, stay in the Old Country House. I heard good things about it from nearly every person I talked to in New Zealand--even a girl that worked there for a few months. The only downside is that it is a little way out of town--about a couple kilometers walk--which is why I didn't stay there, even though it got resoundingly better reviews than the Coachman, which was conveniently located just off of Cathedral Square.

Best Way To Get Around:

I chose the closest hostel I could to Cathedral Square without staying in Base Backpackers (which I'd heard way too many bad things about on my last trip to NZ to even consider). Because of this, I could walk to everything--Victoria Square, Cathedral Square, the river, and the Botanic Gardens, mainly. However, those staying further out of town or wanting to see other attractions (like the gondola) will need to utilize the bus system.

Getting into and out of Christchurch is quite simple and there are a whole plethora of choices, depending on where you want to go. The airport has quite a few domestic flights that go to the major hubs (Auckland, Wellington) as well as many of the smaller airports around the South Island (Hokitika, Nelson). The international airport has daily flights from Australia on the major carriers along with the budget airlines Virgin Blue and Jetstar.

If you're after a scenic train ride, there are two available. One, the "TranzCoastal" will take you north along the coast, through Kaikoura and Blenheim to Picton, where the Interislander ferry docks. The other is called the "TranzScenic" and is billed as being one of the most scenic train rides in the world. It takes you across the Southern Alps and Arthurs Pass National Park to Greymouth, the largest city on the West Coast. I took both of these trains on my previous trip to NZ, and thought that both were quite nice, their price was a bit prohibitive for essentially the same product as the bus lines (although on the train, you get an open air car from which to take pictures of the Canterbury Plains and the Southern Alps).

Three major bus lines run daily from Christchurch--Intercity Coach Lines, Atomic Shuttles, and Southern Link K Bus. Their routes are all slightly different, but in the span of 8 hours or less, you can go north to Picton, Nelson, or Kaikoura, south to Dunedin, west to Greymouth and Franz/Fox Glaciers, or southwest to Lake Tekapo, Mt. Cook, Wanaka, or Queenstown. Pretty much, if you have the time, you can get there from Christchurch. Intercity and Atomic tend to be a bit more expensive than the Southern Link Bus, since nakedbus.com sells their cheap tickets (starting from ) on Southern Link. However, look early and online for Intercity fares and you'll find very affordable "Web Saver" fares.

I had two criteria for choosing a backpackers in Christchurch: it had to be as close to Cathedral Square as possible (for proximity to transport leaving the city), and it was under no circumstances to be Base Backpackers, the most infamous hostel in Christchurch. I considered the Rolleston House YHA, which I reviewed after my visit three years ago, but then I stumbled upon the sleek Coachman's website. Now of course, there's absolutely no relation between the quality of a hostel's website and the quality of the accommodation itself, but I let it lure me in anyway after reading that the Coachman was only a block away from Cathedral Square. Even better, they offered reasonably-priced singles ($65/night), which was just what I had in mind for the night after my taxing 30+ hour journey from Houston.

When I checked in, the staff seemed a bit rude; I wanted to buy a BBH card for the rest of my travels through NZ and the man serving me did not seem to want to part with one. He questioned me on how long I was staying in the country and tried to convince me it wouldn't be a good deal (which is very difficult to imagine, given that it only costs $45 and gives you $3 off every night in a BBH hostel in NZ). I finally coaxed him into selling me one and walked upstairs, unimpressed but too tired to really care.

My room was on the third floor in a back corner near the kitchen. I was a bit surprised when I opened the door and found that there were actually 4 beds in the room--1 queen bed bunked with a twin, and another set of standard bunks. I was concerned that they'd put me in the wrong room, but as there was no other gear lying around, I just hoped for the best. No one ever did show up, and I slept on a queen-sized bed for the first and last time in the country! I slept like a log until about 4am, when construction started just outside my window.

I didn't really spend much time using the Coachman's facilities on this quick trip through Christchurch, since I checked out before 10am the next morning. I did get a chance to see the big living/bar area, which was newly renovated and really quite well-stocked. There was a TV, computer, chess board, the aforementioned bar, and a big book exchange (which had been heavily patronized by the German backpacker population and thus was rather scant on anything written in English). It seemed like it would be a good place to hang out. The kitchen areas looked a little small to me, but when I used the smaller kitchen there were very few people there so we didn't get in each other's way.

The staff that I met on the morning I left were much more amenable and actually seemed willing to help me. They also directed me to the storage closet where quite a number of other people had already plonked their backpacks; I think the sheer joy of not having a fully-loaded pack on my back while walking around Christchurch's CBD cost me about $2 for the day.

All in all, I left Coachman's the first time with a good impression--so much so that I recommended the place to quite a few other people that I met in the South Island. However, when I returned to Christchurch for two nights before my departure, my impression of the place soured slightly. The bigger communal areas of the hostel were still inviting & fastidiously cleaned, but the main kitchen and the $27 dorm rooms were in another realm entirely. I tried to cook a meal at what was apparently "peak hour" and ended up constantly tripping over both the other chefs and the people crowded around the table that took up most of the kitchen's floor space. We were cramped together and angry; no one really spoke outside of the commonly-heard "excuse me" or "are you done with that frying pan yet?" The bedroom was one of the tiniest I'd seen at any hostel in my ten weeks of traveling; we ended up with bags all over the floor that we had to jump across to get to the door. Believe me, it was fun trying to pack my backpack for air travel the following day when people kept opening the door and knocking me over!

Overall, the Coachman is a decent hostel that's probably the best-located in town. Even though it's got a great communal area, its dorm rooms leave a bit to be desired; if you like a bit more space, you're probably going to have to look a bit further outside the CBD. However, I would definitely recommend a night or two in a single here to get some R&R after a long journey.

After I dumped all of my gear in my room, my next order of business upon arriving in Christchurch was finding food that had never had anything to do with an airplane. So, I walked out of Coachmans Backpackers and turned left down Gloucester St (in the general direction of Cathedral Square). There were plenty of restaurants in both directions on Gloucester St; I could have chosen from Indian, Japanese, or even Mexican had I walked to the right. The restaurants on the side of the hostel closer to Cathedral Square seemed to all be Japanese--I must have walked past at least 3 or 4 before finally giving up looking for something else.

Mum's 24 Café was on the corner of Colombo and Gloucester Sts--only a block from Cathedral Square. It advertised Japanese & Korean foods and looked like it would be relatively quick (meaning it wasn't overly fancy) regardless of whether I ate in or got takeaway. Also, it was packed, which was more than most of the restaurants I had passed on the way could boast, so I figured the food had to be decent.

I was quickly offered help when I walked up to the counter in the back of the restaurant. I took a menu and perused it quickly, noticing that the prices were not too expensive (generally in the range of $10-$20NZ for a main). I wasn't feeling too hungry due to excessive jetlag all but destroying my body clock, so I decided on a simple, but hopefully filling, Japanese udon noodle soup.

When I ordered the meal for takeaway, I was told it would take about 10 minutes; by the time I'd popped down the street to send a quick email and come back, it was already waiting for me, steaming on the counter. It was still steaming even once I made it back to the hostel and opened the takeaway container. After a few minutes, I grew impatient and dug in (not out of hunger, but rather because I wanted to finish it and go to sleep), only to burn my tongue. When it finally cooled down enough to eat, I found that it was fantastic (at least to a person that was used to airplane/airport food!). It was everything I wanted--something warm, tasty, and nutritious (since it was full of vegetables as well).

If you're looking for a quick Asian meal in Christchurch, Mum's 24 is definitely a good choice. I don't think I can give any higher recommendation than to say I ate there again when I returned to Christchurch!

Yellow Rocket Bagels, like Coachman's Backpackers, is very conveniently located; this is perhaps the only reason I chose to patronize both establishments. Since I had absolutely no food on me due to New Zealand quarantine regulations and the fact that Christchurch's supermarkets were quite a long walk away, I was starving when I wandered through Cathedral Square on my way to the Botanic Gardens, and Yellow Rocket just happened to be near the western Worcester St exit.

The cafe itself is pretty much the same as any other small breakfast-oriented shop; there was a bit of seating inside around the counter and plenty more seating outside underneath umbrellas. It seemed to be a pretty popular place because there was a reasonably-sized line, but they were very efficient; the wait was only about five minutes.

I ordered a bacon & egg melt (~$7NZ) and a toasted chocolate chip bagel, which were served promptly. The chocolate chip bagel was pretty much exactly what I was expecting--namely, a toasted bagel with chocolate chips baked into it. It's pretty hard to screw that up! The bacon & egg melt, on the other hand, was a bit of a mess (both literally and figuratively). I quickly realized that I should have specified the type of bagel that the melt came on, because the default was bright yellow and covered in massive, chewy green seeds. A few bites made me realize that a) I really didn't like the giant seeds and b) this was going to be way too messy to eat on the go, since the tomato relish was oozing everywhere. I stopped near the Avon River to methodically pluck off the seeds and polish off the bagel. It was one of the worst I've had in years--it was mushy and had a taste that I couldn't quite place--but I finished it solely because I was starving. Luckily I had the chocolate chip bagel to finish afterwards so I didn't have that taste stuck in my mouth all day!

Overall, I wasn't particularly impressed by what I got from Yellow Rocket, but since the chocolate chip bagel was edible and many other people's bagel sandwiches seemed to come with normal, non-alien-looking bagels, perhaps I just ordered the wrong thing. The bacon & avocado bagel sandwich, for instance, probably would have been a much better choice. They certainly seemed to have quite a following by the city's workforce, who certainly wouldn't patronize a place that gave them sub-par bagels every day. My advice is to just avoid the bacon & egg melt!

Yellow Rocket Bagels is located in the Regent Building, Cathedral Square. Its hours are:

Mon-Fri 7:30am-6pm
Sat&Sun 8am-6pm

Even though Christchurch is but a toddler when compared to any European city--for instance, Christchurch, Dorset, UK--it is still a city steeped in history. Cathedral Square, with its Gothic cathedral--is the most obvious historical location in the city, but there are many other sites of consequence throughout the city. One of these places is Victoria Square, which is just a short skip down Colombo Street from Cathedral Square.

Signs abound around the square that tell the eager visitor about the town's history in general. These signs closely echo the history found on the Library of Christchurch's website and explain the history much more succinctly than I could...especially after ten weeks of traveling and reading informational signs everywhere I went! Basically, Victoria Square (originally called Market Square) used to be the heart of Christchurch. Markets, the post office, and the police station could be found at the square, and it was only for Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee that the area became an inner-city parkland.

Indeed, Queen Victoria towers over Victoria Square. Her stern, sculptured visage stares out from atop a large pedastal in the middle of one of the many flowerbeds. Especially against the steel gray sky that constantly threatened rain, she looked annoyed at all of the tourists standing around taking her picture.

Near Queen Victoria is a statue of Captain James Cook, one of the first explorers to find New Zealand. Although Abel Tasman sailed and found the country that is now named after a province in his homeland more than a hundred years before Cook, he is the one that is credited with mapping the New Zealand coastline nearly perfectly (with a few minor imperfections, like Stewart Island being a peninsula of the mainland and Milford Sound not being a fiord at all). Since this allowed the British to later lay claim to the Land of the Long White Cloud, I'd say he's even more significant than Queen Victoria to the Kiwis.

The third "monument" of sorts--and the one I found most interesting--in the square was the Maori poupou, or totem. This totem was carved from wood to "commemorate the presence of the Maori in Canterbury," since they clearly deserve a place in the annals of Christchurch history. Specifically, this totem commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the Maori and the English at Akaroa, on the nearby Banks Peninsula, in 1840. I found the totem--covered in faces, artful swirls, and plant & animal representations--to be much more artistic and beautiful than the typical statues of the English nearby.

One cannot forget the dandelion fountains when mentioning Victoria Square. This was the lone part of the square that my friends and I paid attention to on the last trip, since they one of the more eye-catching fountains we'd seen. The water sprays out to make the three different fountains look like three large dandelions after they've turned white and fluffy. They offered a good chance for me to fiddle with my camera settings and take fun shots of moving water as well!

Whilst Victoria Square may not be the centre of activity in Christchurch anymore, it is certainly worth a long stroll through, especially on days where special events are happening, like the World Buskers Festival that I have reviewed in another entry.

Victoria Square is bordered on the west/north by the Avon River, on the south by Armagh St, and on the east by Colombo St. It is just to the north of Cathedral Square.

After my grandparents' garden in England, Christchurch's Botanic Gardens have to be my favorite in the world. Nowhere else have I ever seen such a wonderland of colour, and even my vivid memories paled in comparison to the gardens I found on the cool, cloudy morning that I spent in Christchurch. The fact that the day was on the ugly side only served to highlight how lucky I was to be in the midst of such manicured beauty (although it did mean that my photos weren't quite as nice as they could have been!).

I thought that my friends and I had combed the gardens pretty well on our previous visit, but I was continually surprised by what we had managed to overlook on that trip. Some of my favorite sections are highlighted below (and listed how they appear at the height of summer--the face of the gardens changes constantly, so you might not find exactly what I have described when you visit).

*The Peacock Fountain: Despite its name, this fountain is not made of peacocks, but rather, cast iron with various plants, herons, and dolphins around the base of each of its bowls. It is called the Peacock Fountain after John Peacock, an early resident of Christchurch, and it stands near the main entrance to the gardens at the end of Worcester St.
*The Herbaceous Border: Although not the official name, this section of the gardens could very well be called the "avenue of flowers." You walk along the gravel pathway with a glimpse of the Avon River to your left and a plethora of both foreign and indigineous flowers to your right. I spent way too much time here taking pictures of each new flower I ran across.
*The Rose Garden: One of the centrepieces of the gardens. There are multiple beds of pretty much every type of rose ever seen, and they were all in full bloom!
*The Water Gardens: This has to be one of my favorite sections. Essentially, the gardens are just a very large pond surrounded in plant life, lillies, and other flowers...but the stone bridge crossing the far end of the pond is just so picturesque that I couldn't help walking around trying to see it from every possible angle.
*The Rock Gardens: This garden is very close to the aforementioned water gardens, and reminded me very much of the stunning rock gardens at Chatsworth (although the rocks weren't quite as big!).
*The Dahlia Garden: I don't recall seeing these before, and my pictures tell the same story...yet it's hard to understand how I missed them! A massive bed of dahlias encircles the rose garden; this bed is just as colorful and varied as the roses it surrounds.
*Cunningham House: This conservatory is just behind the rose gardens and hosts different flower displays depending on the season. When I was there, it was chock-full of begonias (and families with screaming little children trying to pluck the begonias).

Despite the numbers of locals and tourists alike that stroll along the various pathways, the gardens normally has a very tranquil feel about it. Lie down underneath a giant oak tree and you could very well be out in the country rather than in the centre of the largest city on the South Island. This was the prevailing mood in the early morning when I arrived; however, by about 11am, this drastically changed. Suddenly, even in the back corners of the gardens, the sounds of cheering crowds and microphone-enhanced yelling could be heard, and I realized that the World Buskers Festival had started for the day. Keen to see the "world's best buskers" that had been invited from all over the world to perform, I made my way back to the Peacock Fountain. The performance I saw there and the numerous other ones that I took in before departing that afternoon have been reviewed in my "World Buskers Festival" entry.

The Botanic Gardens is located just to the west of Rolleston Avenue, and the main entrance is located at Worcester St.

Of everything in the city of Christchurch, Cathedral Square is one of the two absolute must-sees on every tourist's list (the other is the Botanic Gardens, reviewed in another entry). It is fitting that the Cathedral and its pedestrians-only square are the heart of the city, since Christchurch struck me as the most British city in New Zealand.

Despite its old, gothic looks, Christ Church (the Cathedral's official name) itself was actually only completed in the 1800s. However, for a country whose Western history is itself rather short, the Cathedral is positively ancient! I have yet to actually tour the church itself, but it's worth a visit to the square just to see the contrast of the towering spire, made of Banks peninsula totara and other native woods, with the much newer style of the Chalice, the cone-shaped sculpture standing just to its south and commemorating Christchurch's 150th birthday.

The square hasn't always been so pedestrian-friendly, and it was only about 40 years ago when it was converted to the state it is seen in today. There's enough traffic surrounding the square as it is, so I would hate to have seen what it was like as a giant intersection! Much of that traffic is of the bus or tram variety. While the bigger buses cannot fit into the narrow roads around the square (Atomic Shuttles, for instance, has its stop down Worcester St instead) many of the smaller bus companies, which will take you to Akaroa, Hanmer Springs, or the airport, leave from here. The tram actually runs on a train line that makes a loop around the centre of Christchurch. Its stops are clearly marked throughout town with wooden shelters labeled "Tram Stop," and its Cathedral Square stop is on the northern end near Colombo St.

Another very useful building located in Cathedral Square is that of the i-Site, which is the Christchurch information centre. This site has comprehensive brochures on everything in Christchurch & Canterbury, but they also will give you information on activities, accommodation, and transport country-wide. There are plenty of staff always on hand to help you with bookings or other enquiries as well, and it can be very helpful to get all of your itinerary questions sorted out in one place!

Being the heart of Christchurch, it goes without saying that Cathedral Square is a big gathering place. When I was there, even more people than normal were clustering there because of the World Buskers Festival. One of the main stages was a circle just outside the Cathedral, but there were also roving acts wandering through the square at other times. Even when there aren't festivals going on, there are markets (on the weekends, although I was there on a Tuesday during the festival and they were going in full force), giant chess games, and lots of areas to just sit in the shade and enjoy a chat with friends. One special attraction that I've heard quite a lot about is the Wizard of New Zealand. Unfortunately, this fascinating orator seems to be either fully retired or living in Dunedin, depending on who you talk to, so I didn't get to listen to him speak. Count yourself lucky if you do see him!

One way or another, your travels through Christchurch are very likely to take you through Cathedral Square, and you won't regret it!

As I walked through Christchurch's abandoned streets on a chilly, stony gray night in late January, the multiple signs outside shops & cafes emblazoned with "Welcome buskers!" or "Busking Special" baffled me. I had no idea that buskers were such a huge market for cafe-style snacks or tourist wares and couldn't figure out why they'd been singled out over any other random group in the city. Then, as I wandered past Victoria Square, all of my questions were answered with just one sign: a banner that said "World Buskers Festival, January 2008."

Unknowingly, I'd stumbled off of the plane and into the city in the middle of the largest buskers festival in the world. The festival buys plane tickets for buskers from around the world to perform in venues around the city for ten days...but it does not pay them. Each busker still relies on his respective show to impress the crowd enough that they pay for the entertainment. As I found out in the later weeks of my travels, many of the buskers often move on to smaller busking festivals around New Zealand before returning home. Nelson was one of the many cities that I arrived in only days after the buskers had packed up and moved on.

The entertainment had wrapped up for the night by the time I realized what was going on, which was probably best given the dreariness of the evening. The first show I witnessed was the next morning, near the Peacock Fountain at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. As I mentioned in my Botanic Gardens entry, I knew long before I actually arrived at the fountain that busking had started, because the sound of cheering and loud voices lingered over even the more remote sections of the gardens. This particular venue was for children-oriented shows (like my friend The Fairy Queen performed so well last year at Brisbane's Ekka), and the show I saw involved hula hoops and tossing rings to be caught on people's hats. The children thought Dick & Jane were a riot--I did find them rather amusing as well--but since I had limited time, I moved on to check out the performances oriented towards older age groups.

Victoria Square was swarming when I arrived at about noon. Stalls were set up everywhere selling typical festival fare (which were typically overpriced). The main show in the Victoria Square Amphitheatre was The Great Dave, who ended up tearing off his stage outfit to reveal a "flattering" lycra jumpsuit, donning a flat-top bellboy-style cap, recruiting an audience member to throw dishes at him, and then hopping onto a unicycle. It was pretty impressive when he managed to catch a saucer, cup, and spoon and then toss them with his foot onto his head, where they balanced while he rode back and forth on his unicycle. That's certainly a lot more talent than I have!

Other acts were performing or set up all around Victoria Square. "The Confessional" was set up near the food stalls, and all I can really remember from that is that the guy reminded me very much of Dave Chappelle. Green! was quite striking--he was completely painted green and sitting still as a...well...rock painted green.

In Cathedral Square, I watched the majority of Mr. Bunk's show before having to head back to the hostel to pick up my gear for the ride to Akaroa. Mr. Bunk was quite like another character called "Mister"--Mr. Bean, that is. He didn't speak until his show was over and he implored anyone that enjoyed his show to donate. Before that, he only spoke in grunts and Sims-style noises while directing various audience members across the stage and into hilarious poses.

Two days later, I transited through Christchurch on my way from Akaroa to Kaikoura, and I luckily had just enough time between buses to see the Piano Juggler. He, too, was performing in the big circle just outside the Cathedral, and had an even bigger crowd than Mr. Bunk had attracted the day before; this was possibly because Mr. Bunk was hilarious, but the Piano Juggler just left everyone in awe. Besides the fact that he could juggle 7 balls at a time, he could also play songs on his piano with his juggling balls. A spoil-sport on YouTube has commented that it's all fake, but it looked real to me and really left me in awe, and that's all that mattered to me.

I was really glad that I happened to be in Christchurch at just the right time--although some people later on my trip tried to convince me that "just the right time" would have been a few days later when Bon Jovi was performing (for a whopping $100 a ticket instead of the cost of a few donations). I just wish I could have stayed for the whole day so I could have caught all of the performers--the Space Cowboy in particular--that the whole town was buzzing about!

The World Buskers Festival is held every January in Christchurch. In 2008, buskers invaded the city from January 17-27. The writer saw shows on January 23 and 25.